On hand-held information processing devices, such as personal digital assistants (PDAs) and cellular telephones, a user is often prompted to enter a group of items, such as multiple contacts for an email or text or photo, or a shopping list of items (including groceries) to purchase, or a series of events or dates for a calendar. Usually, the user operates the hand-held device to cause the items on a source list to scroll across a display screen of limited size until one of the items of interest appears on the screen. The user then additionally operates the hand-held device to select the displayed item and add it to the group. These user operations often require that the user's eyes be focused on the display screen until both operations are completed several times and that at least one of the user's hands be continually occupied to operate the hand-held device. This can be dangerous when the user is engaged in other actions, such as walking, exercising, driving or operating equipment. Furthermore, such operations involve a local device consuming memory, processor and display screen resources to present and scroll the long lists. If the long lists are first communicated across a network, excessive network resources are also consumed.